Happy Happy Dance! Live Today is Finished

Good evening! I finally have completed Live Today! There were many times I wondered if it would ever get done and even thought about just putting it away, but I'm glad I stuck to it. It will go out in the mail Sat. to a friend.

I have kitted up a much easier Mickey Mouse Minnie Mouse piece for a friend who likes Walt Disney Characters. I'll start it tomorrow.

If the weather is descent and my sister doesn't get mandated to work Sat. morning then she will be coming to town. So guess I better get some housework done. It really doesn't take that much to clean an one bedroom apartment.

Anyone have plans for Thanksgiving? We're going to my nieces house.

Have a Happy and safe Thanksgiving Holiday. Until next time Happy Stitching!

Last Update on Live Today

Good afternoon!
Well I'm full after having our annual Harvest Dinner at church. As usual it was good. We had plenty of food.

This piece is finally coming to the finish line after 3 months of working on it. It's taking much longer then I planned and there were times I wished I wouldn't have tackled it especially that basket, other times I vowed it would have an accident with the scissors but I perseveered and it's all paying off. I'm glad I stuck to it. Hopefully it will go out in the mail end of the week. Then I can look for a small fall or harvest piece to do and Dec. start Christmas stitching.

Well...until next time Happy Stitching.

I know it's been over a month I'm a bad blogger

I have an excuse.....well sort of. I lost my stitching mojo for a while and I don't blog unless I have stitching to share. Then when I got it back I had problems with my computer and scanner. Finally with the help with a couple online friends I figured out how to find the scanned pictures. Saturday I do have someone coming to look at my other computer issues.

October until this week was really very warm and dry. I was looking forward to the cooler weather, now we have it and I want some of the warmth back earlier Oct. had. Not as warm but a little warmer would be fine. Because it was so dry we really have very little color to the leaves, most of them were so dry, that when we had the winds, they just fell of. Disappointing...Hopefully next year will be dryer.

Saturn was sick for a little while and I took him to the Vet. He had fleas. He's indoor only and I never had a cat get fleas. We figured that since I got into the Intake room at the shelter (even though I wasn't suppose to) a flea jumped from one of the cats to me and I brought it home. I ended up flea bombing the apartment. Saturn got to the point he wouldn't even walk on the floor except to go to use his kitty litter once he felt better and started eating again. The Vet said he'd walk on all the furniture and would not walk on the floor. I even fed him on the coffee table. But sorry the kitty litter wasn't going there. He's much better now back to himself and is trying to get me off the computer and pay attention to him.

I am enjoying BSF this year. We are studying the book of Romans, my favorite book.

At the cat shelter things are finally picking up. The summer months were slow. I think we have had as many cats adopted in Oct. as we did in July, Aug., Sept. put together. It has helped that we are now able to adopt out our cats at two other places on Sat. (Petco which we always did although we've had so many kittens this year over 200 we adopt the kittens out from Petco. Once they are adopted out the cats will go there.) Tractor Supply is new to us this year and they allow us to adopt out cats and kittens on weekends.

Speaking of cats, please if you are going to have a cat or dog for that matter, please realize it is a life time commitment. Yes unexpected things come up, but please don't dump the animals off somewhere....take them to an Animal Shelter preferably no kill. Granted sometimes they can't take the animal right then, but if you hold them long enough they will be able to accept them in time. We adopted out our little Quinsy and after a week the owners decided he wasn't a good match. Rather then return him to us like they were suppose to (and yes we take them right away if adopted out to us), they just let him fend for himself on a busy highway. A neighbor was feeding him. When we heard fliers were put out and the neighbor called us. A trap was set, Quincy went right into the trap and was so happy to see Melody (who set the trap). She brought him back to the shelter and he is very happy to be back. Needless to say those people are on our Do Not Adopt list. Okay I'm off my soapbox!

Thanks to Younkers and a good yard sell we had earlier this month money is coming in for us to stay afloat. We had so many kittens and their mothers this year it nearly broke us and money was very tight. Younkers has Community Days coming up and we get to sell coupon books for a $5.00 donation, the shelter gets the $5.00 and there are lots of coupons for the person to use. We've sold close to 100 books and there is still a couple of weeks left.

Friday it will be 3 years to my mom passed away. Last month it was 4 years that my dad passed away. Needless to say Sept. and Oct. are hard months. We really miss them.

Well until next time.....Happy Stitching. Eventually this piece will be done but it still has a ways to go yet.

He Gives Us Peace is done

Good Afternoon! It's a cloudy cool day here, possibly more rain coming. August is usually a hot month but this year has been rather cool. I even turned off my air conditioning and opened the sliding door to get fresh air in. Later this afternoon my sister will arrive. This will be her last visit until Oct. now but that's not that far away.

I just got home from Physical Therapy. One more session in mid Sept. and to get exercises to do at home. I could do more but the out of pocket cost is just too much to continue on. It's doing some good so as long as I keep doing the things at home I should be okay. The headaches and neck pain has subsided and even the light headedness is getting better.

I finished this piece the other day. It was fun and I enjoyed stitching it but was so intricate. It will go to a teenage girl at Love Quilts who chose Religious as theme of her quilt. The piece I'm working on now is from the same book but not as difficult to stitch. It's called Live Today also by Stoney Creek. My last 4 pieces have been by Stoney Creek. You think I like their designs? I think I'm done close to 100 SC pieces.

When my sister gets here we're going to a restaurant to celebrate my birthday (it was last Monday the 14th). I'm trying to decide where I want to go....I'm so picky.

Well until next time....Happy Stitching!

Update on He Gives Us Peace

Good afternoon! I thought I would give an update on this piece. I'm enjoying this piece but I think I will retire the pattern when it's done. It's a cute piece but not the easiest to do. The next piece I am doing is also from this book called Cherish Yesterday.... I love this book I've done several pieces from it and will do at least 3 more.

Next weekend I'm going to try my hand at painting. The cat shelter is having Painting for Paws and usually I don't do it but this year I am. I figure if I have to spend all this money to get a tooth pulled, and for Physical Therapy then I'm spending money on something fun or will it be stressful. And since my birthday is in about 9 days I plan to order some CS patterns! I know I'm being naughty and will probably regret it when I get the credit card bill. I know I'll regret it I should say.

My niece and her 2 boys are here from NC for a couple of weeks. Imagine driving up here by yourself with a 2 year old and 3 year old! She's braver then most of us. But she's young too. She said the first day was rough but the second day was much better. I got to see them earlier this week and will see them sometime this coming up week. Next weekend they are all going to Unity Festival. I stay away from it. It's a Christian Music Festival we've had in town a few years now. I went one day one year and did not like it. The music was too loud and too many people. But most of my friends and the family here in town are going.

Well...until next time Happy Stitching!

Follow Your Dreams Finished

Good afternoon! I finished this piece earlier this afternoon. I loved every minute of stitching on it. Now I have started a free pattern I found on line by Gloria and Pat. It's a Patriotic Precious Moments piece that is so cute. It's a boy holding the flag and his dog is there. It's going quite well so far. I'm surprised at how fast it is going but I barely started it so better not speak too soon.

Anyone have special plans for the 4th of July? I really don't so I'll spend the day relaxing and stitching! We never made a big deal out of the fourth. Although we did go to fireworks that night and I do miss that. Now days people are shooting fireworks off in their neighborhood and although it's not allowed in our apartment complex people very close by do shoot them and we hear them at night.

Well....until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Finished John 3:16

Good afternoon. I finished this piece about an hour ago. And I have kitted up Behold the Lamb that was in Mar.-Apr. 2015 issue of Just Cross Stitch Magazine. I saw it on a post on 123 stitch and I had to have it so ordered it. I'm anxious to start it. A friend from long ago asked for this John 3:16 piece to give to her mother who is a retired missionary and recently widowed. I hope they like it. Unfortunately I am not perfect and my stitching is far from perfect. But it'll look better in a frame.

This year has been busy at the cat shelter. We already had over 50 cats find their forever homes, a couple were retunred because they didn't work with the other cat in the house but that happens.

Anyone have special plans for Easter? I'm not sure what we're doing....I may just buy a ham and have my brother come here, unless our other brother has us over. We don't always know until a couple days before.

I am so anxious to start seeing flowers in the garden. Some are just barely blooming. I love this time of the year.

Well...until next time....Happy Stitching!

Finally Finished

Good evening. Well it's early evening. I just finished Today I shall Live in Faith late this afternoon. Man those butterflies were hard. I was so happy to finish the piece. Tomorrow my sister in law will pick it up and it will be made into a pillow and our local Child Evangelism Fellowship can sell it at a craft sell this Sat.

Last Saturday I went out to eat with my brother and sister in law and my niece and her family. We celebrated Melissa's birthday. Afterwards we went to Melissa and John's house. I played 3 different games with little Katelyn (7) and of course I lost them all.

It looks like spring may be coming in. There isn't any snow in the forecast and they say now through June it's suppose to be warmer then average. Good. I was really sick of the snow.

There isn't much happening right now so until next time.....Happy Stitching!

First finish of 2017

Good Afternoon. I have finally gotten my stitching mojo back. I laid down America for now....I just couldn't get into it and picked up this piece. It's part of Kitty in Window Seasonal series by Eileen Gurak of HandBlessings. I really liked doing this piece and will do the other 3 in their appropriate seasons this year.

I'm now doing a kit that I had called Today I will Live with Faith. It is so pretty, it has 3 butterflies, and I love the colors. It is not going to be an easy piece to do but it's going okay. The pattern is a little small and hard to make out with all the backstitch lines but I have my magnifying glass handy and that's helping a lot.

I babysat my brother's cat, Snowball, for a little over a week while my brother was in hospital. I just couldn't leave her home so I had a friend help me and we brought her here. Things really went better than I anticipated. Before when I attempted to have her here things went so poorly that I had friends come and take her. This time Snowball and Saturn were pretty good. There was very little hissing and growling. I kept Snowball in a kennel when Saturn was roaming around the apartment but when he went into the bedroom to sleep for awhile Snowball let me know by meowing and looking towards the bedroom. It was so cute, and of course she was let out. Both Snowball and Saturn figured out how to open the bedroom door so I did have to watch for that. I really think had I had her a couple days longer though she wouldn't need the kennel as the two were getting along, even kissing each other.

There is a lot of flu and colds going around here. That's the problem with mild winters, everyone seems to get sick. So far I've been lucky but so many of my friends have gotten sick I'm surprised I haven't caught anything from them. Knock on wood.

Things are going great at the cat shelter. We saw a lot of cats go out and unfortunately many have come in. We are filled to the max right now so need to get the cats adopted out. In Feb. our FIV cats and black cats were only $25.00. The black cats sold pretty good we have a few left. People are afraid of the stigma of FIV cats. They are afraid they'll catch the Aids virus from the cat and no they can't. However we do not encourage people with young children to see the cats because young children do have a lower immune system then us adults. We don't encourage people with other cats in house either but some have adopted them and things are going well. Just because they have the virus does not mean they will get aids and it's not a death sentence for the cat. If kept inside the cat can live long healthy lives. Though we do encourage taking them to the vet at least once a year and if they do get the sniffles or eye infection, uti, or other things take them to vet immediately. We've had the room for almost 18 months and all the cats we've had in there are still doing very well. It's some of our other cats that were healthy that got sick and died, but that's only been a few. And now we have a new Vet who keeps right on top of our cats. Like adults, the cats are getting colds and sniffles and our sick room is full. But then we just had 10 cats brought in to us from a hoarding situation 8 of them were sick. But they are all doing better.

Well, until next time.....Happy Stitching.

I am still alive and stitching.....sometimes

I know it's been a while. I just haven't gotten into stitching like I use to. It took me over a month to do a half page. I think it's because of the colors in the Empire State Building are so dull. The more interesting colors are coming up so it should go faster now. I thought for sure this page would be done and I'd be into the last section by now.
January was sort of an uneventful month not much happened. So there really hasn't been anything to blog about.
So until next time....Happy stitching.

Another ornament finish

Good afternoon. I'm finally stating to stitch again. I finished this in a week. Well....faster then three weeks. I hope to get two more ornaments done by end of the year. (Although this weekend is really busy so I don't know.
Tomorrow I'm celebrating Christmas with my niece's family and then we'll go to my sister-in-law's church's Christmas Eve Service. Her brother has a major role in it so she wants to go see that.
I had made a list of several cats I wanted adopted out for Christmas. No not all of them got adopted but I'm posting a picture or two of one of them. Our little monkey-kitty, Tianna. We all just adored her. She's a tiny little girl and very active. And she earned the name of monkey-kitty for a reason. She'd be the one that as soon as you went to the back area where all the cat rooms are she'd be at her door jumping up and down so happy to see you. And also wanted to run in the hallways and big room and the enclosed patio area. There was nothing too high for that little girl to reach. Oh she came to us with a severe eye infection and her owner didn't have the money to cover it so turned her over to us. They tried to save her eye, and after about two months decided to remove the eye before the infection took her life. Finally she got released to the floor. The one picture of her was at Halloween and they dressed her as a pirate. A cute pirate she was. The other is a picture they took for "Home for the Holiday's, featured cat of the day. You can see how tiny she is probably about 4 or 5 pounds at the most. She has so much energy she burns the calories off. I saw a rock climbing wall for cats and said we should get that for Tianna she'd of loved it. Anyway, she got adopted. The people were warned she'd be climbing up their curtains, climbing up the Christmas tree, and jumping on to the tables, and counters they said they had a squirt bottle. They had adopted from us before so we know she went to a good home. Here's a couple of pictures of her.

I guess I just have one picture of her. And of course I have to add a picture of my sweet Saturn. He's wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!
Well until next time...Happy Stitching. Have a Merry Christmas!

A Tiny Christmas Finish

Good Afternoon. Time can sure get away from a person. Here it is Dec. 19 and it's my first post in Dec. So much for hoping to have 40 posts this year. Originally I wanted 80 but reduced it to 60 then when I saw that wasn't going to happen reduced it to 40. I might make it to forty.

For some reason I haven't wanted to stitch as much lately. I don't know why. It took me 3 weeks to do this tiny piece. I do have a second ornament going that should be finished tomorrow or Wed. I am finding more time to stitch this week then what I have the last couple of weeks.

Everyone have their Christmas shopping done? I do! My sister-in-law and I went last Wed. and I did my shopping then. It's so much fun to shop for children. Sat. we'll have Christmas with my niece, Melissa and her family, then Sunday we'll have a quiet Christmas with just our brother and his wife after going to church. I have to work in the Nursery at church that day.
Hope we don't have a lot of kids.

My hip and knee are not healing as fast as I want. Although I think part of the problem is I do have Degenerative arthritis in the hip so that is a factor.

This year we haven't gotten as many cats adopted out as we did last Christmas season. We have the $25.00 special going but it just seems to be slower, Disappointing. I'm hoping they get more adopted out tonight and Wed. Sat. being Christmas Eve we aren't opening to the public but they will schedule a time any time this week if needed.

Well until next time....Happy Stitching!

A Quick, easy finish

Good Morning. I have a few minutes before I had to the Cat Shelter so thought I would post this piece. It was very quick and easy to do. I had made a piece for Madyson when she was adopted and my niece wanted me to do a piece for Katelyn too. I am hoping Katelyn will like this as it's not the colors she would have chosen. My sister-in-law who is also their grandmother will make both pieces into pillows.

Well....time is short so until next time.....Happy Stitching.

An UFO Bites the Dust

I finished this earlier this morning. It was a difficult stitch as there was so much detail and so muc backstitiching in it. But I did enjoy it and am happy I dug it out to finish. My dad's cousin saw this when I posted it on my face book page and asked for it so it will go to her.

I have dug out another UFO to get further on if not completed. Only it's not as old as this own was. (I started in 2008. It's the AUTUMN piece by Stoney Creek I started last year.

Well....until next time Happy Stitching!

A Finish and an UFO

This was a quick, easy, piece by My Big Toe Designs. I wanted something easy to do after spending 3 months on America piece. This piece made me think of my mom as even in adversity she rejoiced. Also when I graduated from High School I wanted a white dress with pink flowers to wear under my cap and gown. Unable to find one my mom found material and sewed the dress for me. I loved it and wore it often. The flowers in the border of this piece made me remember it because they were very similar to the ones in the dress. Funny what triggers your memory, things you had long forgotten about will come to mind.

I have dug into my UFO pieces and decided to try to finish 1 or 2 of them. If I could find the piece and the pattern, I was doing it. Well....I found the piece and pattern so am going to finish up this piece. I started it years ago for Love Quilts and for some reason never finished it. Probably because I made a mistake that seemed too hard to try to fix at the time. (That's usually why I lay down a piece, usually pick it up years later and the mistake was easy to correct then.) This book also has a fox in it I never finished....but have to find that piece.

Well until next time....Happy Stitching!

Page 14 of America Finished

Good Morning! I hope everyone has a safe and nice Holiday Weekend. It's the last weekend of the summer. Kids that haven't returned to school yet will be returning Tuesday. It's been a nice summer, I really hate to see it end, it went by too fast.

I finished page 14 of America and has been laid down until Jan., then I hope to work on it until it's finished, hopefully in early March. We'll see. Will I do another piece by Mystic Stitch? Yes, I already have it picked out. I've done 2 pieces earlier.

I just got home from the cat shelter. We have so many nice cats right now. We just recently got some new cats that are so sweet. We doubt it will take them long to be adopted.

Also have a lot of things coming up at church with the picnic middle of Sept., then Oct. Chilli cook off, November, Harvest Dinner and then in Dec. Holiday potluck. We are trying to have more activities for the people at church to get together, get to know each other. Our church is getting new people but some of the people that have been with us a while are leaving. I don't get it. No it's not the same church it was 5 years ago, and yes a lot of people such as my dad, who were real leaders have died. But when we decided to get this Pastor and the Worship Directors we knew what direction they wanted to take the church. People always say to me "If your dad was alive he wouldn't let these things happen." I don't know that....Dad was about reaching people. And to be honest, God never changes but He does reach people where they are at. So we have to give a little to reach people for Christ. Christianity isn't a bunch of rules and regulations.

Speaking of my parents today would be their 66th wedding anniversary. Their second one in heaven. We miss them there isn't a day I don't think of them. This picture I think is of them at time of 60th anniversary. I remember their 63rd anniversary dad wanted Meat Pie. It's a Finnish dish he grew up on and we did too. My sister-in-law made it for him and he ate it even wanted seconds. Dad was ain Hospice Care at the time and died 20 days later.

Well until next time...Happy Stitching. (My cat is about to kick me off the computer LOL!)

1,000 Hours of Stitching on America

Good Morning. Yesterday I reached a milestone on America, I stitched on it 1,000 hours! I started it Jan. 1, 2014 and hope to finish it in 2017 or early 2018. This is what I have done on page 14. See above post to see the top half of piece.

It's been a busy few days. Friday I got to see two nieces and their children. Michelle and her boys had just arrived back from a year in Sweden. (Her husband went on to CO to get their house ready plus he starts teaching again end of Aug. Michelle starts beginning of Sept.) It was a fun noisy day. My birthday was on Sunday so my sister was also at my nieces, and made me Coconut Cream Pie using our mom's recipe. It was sooooo good. I hadn't had it in years. I had posted on Face book I had 3 wishes, one was for my mom's coconut cream pie, 2) to go to Golden Corale on my birthday, & & 3 to have a cat or two adopted from the shelter. Friday was so much fun. It was nice to see the girls and kids again. The kids are growing. On Sunday I went to church and then my brother took me to Golden Corale. It was so good.

Sat. we did not get any cats adopted at the shelter but 7 of our cats and kittens that had been taken out to Petco got adopted. We were so thrilled at that. And since 3 of the cats were at the shelter first I count that as the wish coming true.

Monday my Sister in law came and got me and we went to Dutch Village with her two daughters. Six kids in all. Melissa has 4, ages 1, 6, 7, and 9. And Christina has two ages 1 and 2. Trice will be 3 in Oct. That was fun. The kids enjoyed the animals and rides. Little Trice kept saying in the car all the way there "We're going to see the animals." I think he had the most fun. He was fearless on the rides even loving the ferris wheel and another ride that kept go up, down, out in circles. I forgot the name of it. We were worried he'd freak out on that but he loved it, and he even knew he had to hold on to the rail and not the chains. Afterwards we went to Pizza Hut and had Pizza! We had planned to go back to the park but the 3 little ones were really tired. Isaac had fallen asleep, Trice and Ryker were too stubborn to give in and were getting cranky. Ryker fell asleep on ride home Christina and the boys will be going back to NC on Friday to rejoin her husband. This was an unplanned trip as Christina fell ill and since they had only moved to NC a few months ago they felt it best for her to see the doctors that had been treating the illness all along. It's an illness she'll have to deal with for life. She's doing much better now so will be returning to her husband.

Well....I'm going to go back to stitching. Until next time....Happy Stitching!

Pages 7 &8 of America are finished

Good afternoon. The top half of America is now completely done so I uploaded it in two parts so you have an idea what the top half looks like. I now have close to 1,000 hours put into this piece. I am going to start page 14 tomorrow, which I am excited about as it has much more color in it. Right now I plan to lay this piece down the end of Aug. We'll see how far I am on page 14 and how it goes.

I'm getting anxious to see my niece, Michelle and her boys and hear about their year in Sweden. Michelle and her husband, Scott are college professors in Chemistry and it was their 7th year. Every 7 years they get to take a year off and do research anywhere they want. They chose Sweden as their best friends live there. Scott is not coming here, he's going back to CO to get their house ready and plus his classes start earlier than Michelle's so he'll be getting ready to get back into teaching.

Our church is having Bible School this week. I'm not working in it this year but on Friday will be working at the picnic for them. That will be fun.

Unfortunately I think my one Hydrangea plant is dead for the rest of season. Hope it blossoms again next spring. My other one is doing pretty good, and my Tomato Plants are doing great (as well as the others). I even picked a couple of tomatoes a couple of days ago, but fear I did it a little too soon. I'll make sure the rest of the tomatoes are ripe before I pick them, they are not nearly ready yet.

Until next time.....Happy Stitching!

Update on America

Good afternoon. I know I haven't been around as much lately. For some reason I just haven't gotten into blogging like I use to. Also I haven't stitched much in the last 3 weeks until yesterday and today. I think I stitched more yesterday and today than I have the last 3 weeks. I definitely got twice as much done. Anyway this is my progress on pages 7 & 8.

My sister is coming in to town later today. So the next couple of days I won't get much stitching in. We'll probably just relax tonight, doing our running around tomorrow and then play games whenever.

My small garden is doing good except for one of the hydrangea plants. The first one that got planted just never really took off well. Now the one planted later is really doing good and new buds are even coming up. I'm hoping next year the plants will really do well. Everyone tells me it takes a year or two for them to really get going. I also wonder if the first one is getting too much sun. I've been pruning it but then someone told me not to prune it, just let it take care of itself. But I don't know some of those leaves and flowers are pretty dead. But like I said the second one is doing great and the rest of the flowers are doing good.

August will be a busy month. Several of my nieces and nephews will be coming in from out of state. Each week someone is coming in except for the first week and last week some will be leaving. I'm looking forward to seeing them again. I haven't seen Jeremy, who lives in AZ in 4 years.

Well...until next time. Happy Stitching!

Hope Sampler Finished

Good morning! I am just waiting for a friend and her daughter to get here so thought I would post my finish. I finished it a couple of days ago and just getting around to posting it. This will go to a boy at Love Quilts who has Religious as theme of his quilt. I have my America piece back now so am back to stitching on that. I finished page 9. Here it is:I never thought I would get page 9 done, that was by far the hardest page. I think it was because of the colors being so similiar. Now I'm doing page 7 which is a much easier page to do.

Last night my sister in law came with a new hydrengia plant. It is so pretty. The first one she gave me isn't doing that well but everyone says it will do better next year. So I'm not giving up on it yet. A friend is coming over in a few minutes and we'll do a little more work in the garden